CONDITIONS
Lower Back Pain
Overview
Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent conditions affecting millions worldwide. It can be triggered by prolonged poor posture or bending awkwardly and lifting incorrectly. Hence muscles, ligaments, facet joints and disc can be twisted or overly stretched by rapid movements.
Chronic back pain can significantly impact your quality of life such as ability to do house chores, chronic tiredness as well as difficulty sleeping due to pain.
Aside from reliving the pain, we are committed to keep the pain from relapsing as we address other signs and symptoms along with physical therapy to help strength and stability of your overall spine
Causes of lower back pain
Muscle or ligament strains from sudden twisting movements, lifting heavy objects from the nature of your job or heavy & unnatural loading of the spine from repetitive movements causing symptoms such as pain, stiffness, joint swelling and tightening of lower back
Spinal distortions from irregular curvatures. Commonly seen conditions such as scoliosis, abnormal curvature seen such as military spine, hypokyphosis typically are not presented with pain but by seeing postural abnormalities presented in the spine
High force/High Impact injuries– This may result in compression fractures, development of calcified ligaments scar tissue formations as well as fractures known as spondylolisthesis
Spondylosis – Inflammation of the vertebral spine known as osteoarthritis is a-kin to knee osteoarthritis where depending on severity may lead to narrowing of the disc space around the nerve roots & spinal cord (a condition known as spinal stenosis)
Symptoms of Back Pain
- Dull pain that is radiating after prolong sitting from driving or working in front of computer
- Pain that localizes in the lower back and worsen when bending or twisting
- Sharp severe pain that lingers across the back after an injury
- Pain that travels to the buttocks, legs and feet with irritating pain sensations and consistent numbness or pins and needles down one or both legs
- Weakness of legs, difficulty in walking normally (known as antalgic gait)
- Hardcore neurological signs involving bladder/bowel problems or even muscle atrophy
How can Chiropractic care help with back pain?
Chiropractic care uses specific adjustments to help improve spinal function.
After understanding your health history and performing examinations, the Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) will put together a care-plan that suit your condition and goals.
Under regular chiropractic care, the aim is to correct the underlying causes of spinal injury and depending on how early we catch the problem, reverse or stop further progression of degenerative changes.
Typically, we see spinal sub-luxation in our patients who tend to neglect other signs and symptoms such as muscle imbalances, postural distortions, joint locking/blocking and nerve irritations.
Through chiropractic care, we see vast improvements in their posture and overall better quality of life ranging from improved sleep, improve movement quality and flexibility.
Prognosis (each case is different)
Depending on factors such as your age, the length of time you have experienced your lower back pain, other signs and symptoms you have neglected for example your posture, muscle imbalances, joint tightening and blocking over a period of time and the severity shown on your x-rays are vital factors to gauge your progress.
Other components to determine how much you will progress would be dependent on your general health and well-being, your exercise habits (under, over or improper exercising movements), your level of commitment towards your recommended care-plan by the Doctor of Chiropractic(DC)